My son's birthday

After the dance reading the paper
Acrylic on canvas
16 x 20 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010
(Christopher was my model
for this painting a few years ago.)

Today was my son Christopher's birthday. All
through the day in the intense search to get
the gift he really wanted, I was thinking about
him -- what a wonderful person he is. One of
the unexpected benefits of having children
is that they teach you and pull you into worlds
you would not explore without their presence.
I feel that way about my sons. They make
my life so incredibly rich in love, laughter,
kindness, and in so many ways I can't describe.

Christopher's first show of his wonderful photography

Christopher's life long favorite dessert has been
cheesecake. Get to know us, we buy the cakes
for our kids birthdays, our make them from
mixes, but today we attempted to make a cherry
cheesecake recipe from the Internet that was
wrong in almost every way. Except for one.
The resulting gooey mess without nearly
enough sour cherries in a sauce that never
gelled for the top, was incredibly delicious.

But the birthday guy had been given about six
birthday cakes by the time he reached our
house for dinner. So that was funny. He
still ate the sloppy cheesecake pudding we
were euphemistically calling a cake, but that's
because he's polite and it was good.

Christopher and Megan (his fiancée) at my last show

I am planning to take a break from blogging
this month. I may take July off, or just blog
when the mood hits me, so if it hits every
day as it has for 871 days, you'll know where
to find me, but if it doesn't, you know I'll be
back in August sometime. I'll tell you more
about this tomorrow.

Have a loving-your-children's-birthdays day.